Category: Dance

Sigma feat. Labrinth – Higher

“Sadly, a bit generic.”

Tim: Ah, what’s brought this out of the woodwork?

Tom: Sigma, drum-and-bass duo responsible for the best Kanye West remix ever (in that it removed Kanye and got to number one). Labrinth, brilliant vocalist and writer. This should be…

Tom: …hmm. Sadly, a bit generic.

Tim: Not a fan, then?

Tom: That introduction — like the quiet middle eight — is wonderful, and promises so much.

Tim: Really? Because I find that part a bit tedious.

Tom: Well, yes, it is a bit too long, and crucially the payoff just isn’t quite worth it. I know drum and bass is ultimately a bit limited: once you start switching things up too much, it slides into being a different genre entirely. There’s a lot you can do in that relatively small sandbox — but there’s just not enough of interest here. The melody isn’t good enough to save this track.

Tim: I don’t know – ‘generic’ it possibly is, but I’d say that chorus with it’s ‘what is love?’ mantra delivers vastly more than what the meandering intro suggests. I really like this track.

Tom: My main problem with it, though: after a couple of repeats, I started hearing “higher, higher” as “hiya, hiya” and wondering how many people he was going to greet before the song was finally over.

Tim: See, I’m now working on chopping that up and setting it as my ringtone.

Tom: It’s better than that endless loop of the One Show theme you had.

Axwell Λ Ingrosso – Something New

“One of the meanings of lambda is binding constructions in lambda calculus”

Tom: That is an uppercase Greek letter lambda in the credit, something that every music site seems to be copying and pasting without comment. Normally I’d replace it with “feat.” or “and”, but given that one of the meanings of lambda is binding constructions in lambda calculus, I’ll allow it.

Tim: I canot BELIEVE more music sites aren’t commenting on that.

Tom: ANYWAY. Two-thirds of Swedish House Mafia here…

Tom: …which is fitting, because this is a brilliant first two-thirds of a song.

Tim: What?

Tom: It’s clearly building: at the end of that “we belong to something new” I was expecting a big drop, and after the second instrumental build I was frankly expecting something ASTONISHING.

Instead we got a few bars of a first-chorus-quality drop, and then… it was pretty much it. Either it was back to the verse, or it was the end of the song.

Tim: Huh. Not entirely sure I agree with you there. Yes, if this was a stock song structure there’d be a middle eight and closing section after that, but I think it also works as an outro. Would I say no to some more? Absolutely not. But I don’t think it qualifies as particularly lacking – that’s a perfectly good dance section, and shouldn’t be dismissed as just a build.

Tom: I can only assume that the other one from Swedish House Mafia was generally responsible for providing some sense of LOUD BANGING CHOON CLOSURE and the other two didn’t know what to do without him.

Tim: Except write lyrics at 2:40 talking about Pret a Manger.

Tom: What do you… oh, for crying out loud. I can’t hear that any other way now.

Tim: Sir, your are very, very welcome.

DJ Fresh feat. Ella Eyre – Gravity

“A pretty damn good cake.”

Tom: DnB producer DJ Fresh has a couple of notable hits under his belt, but in my head he’s mostly noted for the ridiculous Dibby Dibby Sound. This time, he’s gone for what I can best describe as “euphoric vocals”.

Tim: Yep, “euphoric vocals” works for me.

Tom: So, I’ve previously established that I’m a sucker for Americana, road-trip music videos, but in this case I had this playing in another tab — I didn’t even notice that until half way through, and it was the icing on a pretty damn good cake.

Tim: Indeed – as the actual Ministry of Sound states below the video, “Big track, great video! Thumbs up all round ” and who are we to disagree wit the government?

Tom: Now, I’ll grant you that it’s a bit by-the-numbers: there’s nothing unconventional or surprising in here. But: those are excellent numbers to go by. One more chorus and it’d outstay its welcome — it doesn’t have much replay value — but at three minutes this is a properly good track that’d fit nicely in a DJ set.

Tim: It is, especially as you don’t get that many opportunities to dance to a pipe organ. Like it a lot.

Tulisa – Living Without You

“Nope. Still wasn’t worth it.”

Tom: And to continue the week’s theme: the video went up in October, so fans have had pirated copies for months. But hey, you could have pre-ordered it, and a slightly better quality version will drop into your iTunes account today!

Tim: That’s DEFINITELY what every person will do. But, Tulisa, really?

Tom: I’ll be honest, I wasn’t going to bother with this, and then I saw the name on the YouTube account: SteveAATW. Yep, this is an All Around The World records release, them of Clubland fame, so I’m at least giving it a chance.

Tom: First of all, I bet that’s the first time in a while that an AATW release has booked any male eye candy for a video.

Tim: Nope. Still wasn’t worth it. You know, I’ve made some sacrifices for this site, but few more than sitting through three and a half minutes of that tripe.

Tom: Yep. That is disappointingly generic. I know that’s generally what 90% of Clubland releases sound like, and it’s the spectacular 10% that make it all worthwhile, but… huh. It’s not exactly a floor-filler, is it?

Tim: Nope. Really, really, not. Dull, tedious and basically something I want to switch off after a minute.

Mohombi – Universe

“A party track with pretty much everything, really”

Tim: I know we’re back to Monday, but let’s have a party track. The here, to be specific, the title track off Mohombi’s second album, which was released back in July.

Tim: A party track with pretty much everything, really, from the strings with attitude right through to the bagpipes (or at least the synth line that sounds like bagpipes), because why not?

Tom: It really does pay off in the last chorus, doesn’t it? It took a long time to get there, though.

Tim: And to be honest, before hearing this if you’d said to me “Tim, here’s a party track that’s improved by the existence of bagpipes,” I’d have sensibly told you to do one (whilst admittedly enjoying DJ Sakin’s Braveheart rework). But here, the bagpipes work.

Tom: I’m not sure how you forgot Dario G’s Carnaval de Paris, notable for using both accordion and bagpipes and still, astonishingly, being really good.

Tim: Oh. No, I’m not sure either. Though working here it might partly be that they only occasionally take centre stage, often being drowned out by everything else that’s going on in the chorus, or it might— actually, I’m going to interrupt myself, because that chorus: what a chorus it is. And what a pre-chorus. And, indeed, everything else about this track, because it’s just brilliant, really.

Tom: I’m going to pull the reins back just a little here, and say: it’s okay. I just don’t see where you’re getting the astonishment from, though; but then, it was the other way round on Friday with Sharks. It’s almost like music opinions are subjective, or something.

Tim: Who’d have thought it?

Avicii – The Days

“Can you tell me: who’s singing this?”

Tom: Without looking up anything about this song, or looking at the comments, can you tell me: who’s singing this?

Tim: And that is…Robbie Williams?

Tom: And he’s not even credited! I mean, officially he is, but not on the YouTube video or in most of the track listings. I wonder what financial arrangement made that possible?

Tim: I’m guessing something like ALL OF THE MONIES.

Tom: Indeed, this is such a lovely Robbie 90s jangly-pop song during the first parts, that I sort of forgot this was Avicii. There’s a heck of a difference between that first verse and the final, instrumental outro.

Tim: I think there’s that, and also that Avicii has in recent tracks been getting gradually less Aviicii-like, cutting back of the heavy dance beats.

Tom: But you know what? It still works. He’s still got it. And I still expect this to reach the charts.

Tim: It does work, and I hope you’re right. Also, I think one of my favourite lyric videos: creative, fun, no typos, everything it needs.

Saturday Flashback: Doctor Spin – Tetris (Radio Edit)

“Let’s play a guessing game.”

Tim: It’s 1992, we’ve pretty much reached ‘peak Tetris’, and a producer calling himself Doctor Spin has taken it upon himself to release to the world a dance version of the ubiquitous theme tune.

Tom: Crikey, that opening synth isn’t ripped off 2 Unlimited’s “Get Ready For This” at all.

Tim: Well, that’s barely a part of it – this really is entirely awful, with its vast lack of effort and originality, and so it’s hardly surprising that Doctor Spin is in fact a pseudonym. But for who? Let’s play a guessing game; here are some clues:
– he’s quite definitely one of the most notable names in music of the past few decades
– he’s the face of several TV talent shows
– he’s not traditionally (or indeed at all) known for having anything to do with dance music

Tom: Simon Cowell?

Tim: No, so let’s have another: the same year as this was released, he was knighted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and five years later he received a peerage for services to music (apparently despite this).

Tom: You are kidding me.

Tim: Oh, we might be getting there, but one more: two of his other works are based on biblical stories; another revolves around a ghost, and one more was made famous by Madonna.

Tom: Andrew Lloyd Bloody Webber?

Tim: There it is, and yes, that’s right! Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber, created this abomination, and got to number 6 in the charts with it, so well done everyone. My respect for both him and the record-buying public of 1992 has now diminished considerably, and to make up for it I think we should all have a history lesson, because that there is how a Tetris adaptation should be done.

Tom: That is exactly the link I thought it was. Well done.

Tim: Well, it’s the only one it could be, really.

Da Buzz – Bring Back The Summer

“Three months late. Or nine months early.”

Tim: This track is exactly what you’d expect it to be, given the title.

Tom: That’s a weird setup for a video: film as if it’s behind-the-scenes, but have the artist sing the lyrics anyway. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it before. Mind you, I don’t think it works, either. But yes: it’s exactly what I’d expect it to be.

Tim: That is, a summer floorfiller three months late. Or nine months early, which I can’t help thinking might have been a better option: I know nobody’s really looking for a dance tune in the middle of February, but I can’t help feeling I might get a bit more from it if it was Bring On The Summer, full of hopes and dreams about how wonderful everything will be, rather than a somewhat morose style of lyric, which doesn’t really fit with the tone of the song.

Tom: Very much standard, and I’m not using that as a compliment. That hook just isn’t good enough to bear that much repeating.

Tim: In terms of the tone of the song, though: perfectly good enough. Standard, if you will. Just, yeah, out of its time, and I’m not entirely sure it works. Though actually, with our summer apparently lasting until October I don’t know what they’re moaning about.

Basic Element – Someone Out There

“That qualifies as a CHOON.”

Tim: Here’s one for a Friday, to get you READY FOR THE WEEKEND. (And before you ask, no idea about the car.)

Tom: Well, that qualifies as a CHOON.

Tim: I’m writing this on Thursday evening; when it goes up I’ll be desperately trying to manage hordes of people all desperate to get their hands on shiny new phones. And you know what? This is a perfect track to accompany that. It’s loud, it’s a bit messy with the rapping on top, it’s reminiscent of dance tracks of old (fairly sure there’s a Faithless track lying around in there somewhere), but more importantly it’s LOUD.

Tom: Agreed. It’s a fairly 90s track, all things being equal, and someone how that’s not a bad thing.

Tim: BANGING, in fact, if that word hasn’t lost all meaning yet. This is a middle of the set track, to be played when people are jumping around and happy to keep on do so, and ideally as far away from God Is A DJ as possible so people don’t notice.

CLMD – Wild Men

“The first time you push play you won’t be concentrating on the music.”

Tim: This is a video that could be taken several ways: funny, weird, maybe horrifically disturbing. Either way, the first time you push play you won’t be concentrating on the music.

Tom: Which doesn’t say much for the music, really.

Tim: Perhaps not, but if you switch the screen off and just focus on the sound, you can really appreciate it somewhat, or at least understand what the video has to do with the music. It’s not particularly special – this would most likely fall into the forgettable category you introduced on Tuesday – but I think the video at least is worth a note.

Tom: I’m not sold on that video: adding subtitles doesn’t really work in a music video.

Tim: No – only really serves to further distract from the sound. It’s not a bad track by any means, but it’s all somewhat standard, and the video really isn’t. So what does that tell us? That the two dance producers would be better off script-writing? They should just focus on the day job? Or perhaps nothing at all, and what we should really be doing is DANCING when a DJ puts this on in a club, because I’d very happily do that.